Happy National Quilting Day!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Yeah, I know...celebrating always puts me in a Jabberwocky mood. Don't mind me. I'll get back to something approximating normal by tomorrow...or probably in just a few minutes because here at the Three Cats Ranch, we're celebrating National Quilting Day by cleaning out our greenhouse. It's hardly celebratory, but you gotta do it while the help takes a day off from his real job. And while it's not raining. You might be surprised to know that cleaning out the greenhouse is more of an outside job than an inside job. Pictures to follow, of course.

Nevertheless, I did get in some sewing on the Mumm's the Word quilt yesterday, and I made quite a bit of progress. I finished the ten "corner square" blocks.

And the eight half square triangle blocks.

There are still seven small log cabin blocks to finish and then Section 5 will be complete. Also yesterday, I sneaked a peek at the sixth and final section of the quilt. I was pleased and surprised to realize that I've made all the blocks for this quilt now! After this, only quilt assembly remains. As a reminder, this is how the finished quilt will look.  The pieces I've been working on will almost all go into the border. 

I started working on this in August of 2012, and it is my second oldest UFO. Learning that it's almost ready for assembly was quite a thrill, and finishing up the last of the blocks seems a great way to celebrate National Quilting Day! This quilt pattern is available free on the internet. It was created by Debbie Mumm to celebrate 25 years of design.

This morning I finished the embroidery for Block #47 of the Live, Love, Teach quilt. Here is Connie's original submission:

Here it is rendered in fabric and floss with both machine and hand stitching.

There is just one more block to complete for March's to-do list...this one by M. Collis.

I have in mind to do a sort of reverse applique of just the stem and the yellow petals. That way, I can hold the flower center (where the hand stitching will be) to just one thickness of fabric.

So that's my day mapped out. Hope you're getting some sewing time today.